Research projects
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Distrust in Expertise: A Philosophical Investigation
This project investigates our tendencies to (dis)trust specific sources of information.
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“Pursuit of holiness” in the Provincia Belgica Flandrica during the second half of the seventeenth century
In this project, the Carmelite pursuit of holiness in the second half of the 17th century is examined from four angles: as an administrative ambition, as a personal narrative, in the training of novices and within cultural sanctity-models.
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Between Biology and Ethics: The Concept of Drive in Schelling's Philosophy
The focus of this research is Schelling's philosophy of nature in general, and the concept of drive in particular, as it develops from his early philosophy of nature and freedom up to 1809.
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Phenomenology and naturalism
This PhD project concerns the concept of ‘naturalism’ and its meaning in the philosophical projects of Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.
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Planet and Plot: Imagining Humanity in the Anthropocene
Departing from a collection of novels dealing with climate change, this project investigates if and how literature can give a figure to being-human in the Anthropocene.
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A World of Value.
This dissertation explores the ways in which Nietzsche’s experimentalism has been received in secondary literature, and argues that it should have been received differently.
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Drive and Trauma in Freudian Metapsychology
This project aims to offer a reading and analysis of Freuds Beyond the Pleasure Principle.
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Sites for Unlearning
One the one hand, this project is a philosophical investigation into unlearning. And on the other hand, it is an action research project which attempts to set in motion a collective process of unlearning within a concrete educational setting.
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The Powers that Be
This project focusses on the ontology of powers: what are powers? More about this project can be read here.
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Between Biology and Ethics: The Concept of Drive in Classical German Philosophy
This project is a historical and systematic study of the concept of drive within classical German philosophy.
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Phenomenology of Testimony
In this project, prof. dr. Gert-Jan van der Heiden aims to offer a more profound, ontological sense of testimony.
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Animal Imagination in human and non-human animals: a phenomenological paradigm
This project develops a new phenomenology of animal imagination and investigates the role human and non-human imaginations play in the development of the science of animals in need of re-foundation.
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When Rome Lost the Golden Age
This project aims to investigate the attempted transition into modernity, endeavoured by several literary and academic circles in Rome at the end of the seventeenth century by re-examining the academic culture and its institutions in the city.
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Psychological wellbeing, personal development and meaning in life in highschools
This study sheds light on spiritual care options for high school students, based in part on meaningfulness aspects of well-being issues among these youth.
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Avicenna Live (ALIVE)
ALIVE explores a unique set of essential yet hitherto widely neglected source texts for the immediate context of Avicenna’s intellectual development and offers a new digital approach to the study of diverse and difficult textual corpora.
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Sense of Self in Persons with a Dementia Syndrome
NWO SGW Open Competitie M project about the sense of self in persons with dementia.
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Evangelical Protestants in the year 2020: Community, Identity and Belief
This project aims to gain a better understanding of this particular group of more orthodox, devout believers.
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“You don’t know what it’s like!” Exploring the epistemic role of Experts-by-Experience in mental health care
This project proposal addresses challenges of expertise-by-experience in mental health care. It employs a philosophical approach, clarifies the issue, explores conceptual frameworks, and establishes a collaborative network.
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Conscious Reflection vs Embodied Habits: Human Cognition from a Nonhuman Perspective
How can we understand and describe the cognitive abilities of animals without 'anthropomorphizing' them? This project aims to develop a less human-centered perspective on the thoughts and abilities of animals.
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Space for Grace
In the Space for Grace program Catholic faith communities in Germany, Flanders and the Netherlands are supported in (innovative) projects that enhance the vitality of these communities.